Seven Demons by Aidan Truhen (best motivational books for students TXT) 📕

I am a genius or maybe to laugh because I went for it and that does not matter at all.

None of it matters except the job. What happens next.

I’m going to change everything.

If it works.

In the meantime I am sophisti-fucking-qué up the wazoo.

I schmooze.

“Greetings!”

“Loved your Milan thing.”

“Enchanté this is my manager Crianza Regatta enchanté.”

“Saw your review you fuck I will cut you no I am joking of course hug me—”

Sophisti-fucking-qué. That is how I roll.

“I AM BANJO TELEMARK hallo hallo LOVE ME YES I AM YOUR GOD that is clearly a lie hello sir very nice to meet you THIS WORLD WILL END AND A NEW ONE WILL ARISE oh thank you no champagne just a juice of some sort would be—perfect—oh Madame Director such a pleasure is my equipment all in place—”

“Well some Banjo some I trust it will be acceptable we were not able to bring all of the scrap up to the plateau in time in fact I think perhaps half remains—”

“That is fine Madame Director that is perfect in fact the aspect of doubt the confusion PERFECT would you care to trigger the smoke?”

“What without announcing the EVENT Banjo people will—”

“Be confused? Miss the beginning?”

“Well—yes—”

“PRECISELY!”

“O o o yes the normal event parameters do not apply I see—”

“ROCK IT MADAME initiate this magnificence—”

And she does.

Purple smoke floods the plateau.

The fireworks start going off in all sorts of directions up above like a kind of air war and they are all pink and purple too and then the lanterns go dark as Rex trips the cutout, which means that the green clothes we are wearing all become remarkably hard to see.

All around, invisible, Saul has been dropping little doodads the size of croissants and all of these right now start hissing and letting off something Doc makes in a cauldron that she claims is an alembic but clearly that is a lie.

Ten seconds later people start to choke.

“OH BANJO THIS IS NOT GOOD AT ALL—”

“Trust me Madame Director you’re gonna love it.”

But I don’t honestly think she will.

—

People are choking and now they are scared and they are looking at me and I am smiling. The smoke is harmless but Doc’s brew is just a tiny bit caustic and right away everyone is assuming that the smoke is the issue because you can see it. In fact the gas is not going to do anything worse than give you a sore throat most especially on an open plateau but that doesn’t matter. The security team does not know that so they will go with their existing protocol and they will put on their gas masks. That is going to look absolutely motherfucking terrifying to the guests and they will assume it is either a terror attack or part of Banjo Telemark’s amazing art and that will make them considerably less biddable. Half of them will want to get the fuck out and half of them will want to find the best place to sit or test the limits of the scenario because: assholes. So someone will make nasty and get smacked down and the other guests will see that and that will take the whole is it a game or is it real thing up a notch and that will happen more and more as three more events occur, which are that they will stop coughing because there’s basically nothing wrong with the smoke, and then the next round of fireworks will start and then finally the security guys will start to fall over unconscious because—

“Charlie you can say it now.”

“I can really?”

“Yes Charlie but only once. Here have a microphone it will be really loud.”

Charlie says:

“I am root!”

But the sound system makes it loud enough to cause avalanches. Plural. It sounds like a jet landing.

“I AM ROOOOOOT!”

And she is. She is indeed.

She is root. And what that means is that when the security system booted up this morning it ordered everyone to replace the filters in their gas masks and the little hockey-puck things they put in were not like the ones they took out. Nooooo indeed. The new hockey pucks were sleepy pucks. Now if you put on a gas mask you will be asleep in two minutes. Less if you are doing exercise at altitude.

Of course that is just the guys out here. The rest of the security team guys are inside and now they know there is something happening and they have been waiting for it. They are even a little bit excited about it because Hans Eiger has been recruiting tough guys from around the world and you know everyone likes to do what they love.

—

The battleship doors are open because the rest of the fair is inside. There are lanterns in here too and more art including this thing that looks like a giant spoon. There’s a lifeguard’s chair and a row of canvases with nothing on them except white paint and a row of boards made entirely of paint from which the canvas has been removed and—

We walk through the hall in silence between the arts. Many many arts. One of them is a figure in a big coat and Lucille immediately hugs it and there is a sound like metal on glass and the art collapses in on itself like Obi-Wan. Lucille looks down at the rubble and I swear he does that dog thing and scuffs his heels back on it a couple of times like yeah you had that coming art.

At the back of the hall there is an ordinary door with a keypad lock and Charlie blows through it in a half a second. Behind that there is a really nice office with high-energy modern furniture in orange and blue and a great view of the mountains. There’s still fireworks going off outside and a lot of people are just watching the show and drinking politely because although all the security guys have collapsed well yeah OF COURSE because they were promised ambiguous stuff and